Letters to the Editor: Omar Khadr, C-51 and Liberal coincidences

Omar Khadr, C-51 and Liberal coincidences

As a Canadian, I am ashamed that our government condemned 15-year-old Omar Khadr to Guantánamo (NOW May 14-20). CSIS agents piled on to the torture by American interrogators. Harper's Conservatives abided by the legally bogus U.S. military commission "trial," refused to let Khadr serve his sentence in Canada until forced to by the Supreme Court and continues to fight rulings, including that Khadr be given bail. Is it a coincidence that the Liberals joined the Conservatives to pass Bill C-51?

History won't be kind to Harper on Khadr

I can see at least one reason the PM did not want Omar Khadr released. He would talk to the press, and Canadians would soon see he is articulate, humble and gracious and does not fit the image our hardline government presented to the public.

I understand propaganda, and it's been used by the government in the case of Omar Khadr. We broke international law and our Charter Of Rights And Freedoms. History will not be kind to this PM or government. The same goes for the U.S.

Shelly Miscavige was last seen in public in 2005 and has for the past decade been in seclusion at a secret Scientology compound near Lake Arrowhead, California, which contains a heavily reinforced vault where the sacred writings of L. Ron Hubbard would be able to survive a nuclear war.

Miscavige is not a prisoner. She has agreed to be there, but brainwashed cultists will agree to lots of things.

It would have been interesting to examine the life of Shelly Miscavige in Going Clear, but then there is so much to discuss about Scientology that it would require half a dozen documentaries to do it justice. Alex Gibney could not fit everything into one movie of normal length. However, more movies will be coming. This story is not over.

David Palter

Toronto

Will Alberta NDP phase out coal?

The new Alberta government deserves huge kudos for including this in its platform, but it's unlikely our western cousins would be considering a phase-out if it weren't for the precedent set in Ontario. Our province showed it could be done, and we're already enjoying the fruits of this policy. In 2014, for the first time in more than 20 years, there were no Toronto "smog advisory" days.

Gideon Forman

Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment

Toronto

Sex abuse still a no-go zone in the military

Re Back To Square One On Sex Abuse In The Military, by Scott Taylor (NOW, May 7-13). This so-called comprehensive report on sex abuse in the military, much like the previous study 17 years ago, is destined to fail for various reasons, including the primary fact that the report was written by Supreme Court Justice Marie Deschamps, a member of the establishment.

Deschamps would never, ever do what's right and strongly suggest that no female should join the military and become a hired killer for the federal government, weapons manufacturers and politically connected corporations. Telling the truth is a no-go in those circles.

David Maharaj

Etobicoke

How many cops know Peelian principles?

We have been discussing the continued malfeasance of the Toronto police force for decades, long before John Sewell published his book on the subject in 1986! Don't expect reform from new chief Mark Saunders. The influence on police culture from south of the border is too strong, and the militarization of police forces in Canada is here to stay.

Martin Gagne

Toronto

A privatized Hydro One is easier to control

For example, the old Ontario Hydro built the biggest coal plant in North America on Lake Erie, and the biggest nuclear station in the world. It turned its back on water power in the late 1950s and built coal and nuclear plants instead of contracting for water power from Quebec and aggressively promoting energy conservation.

In contrast, our privately owned natural gas utilities, Enbridge and Union Gas, have developed some of the best conservation programs in North America.

While privately owned utilities are primarily motivated by profit, this actually makes it relatively easy for the government to control them. It just has to make doing good (e.g., promoting conservation) their most profitable course of action. The rats can smell the cheese!

Twisted portraits of transgender norms

NOW recommended the Transpose photography exhibit by artist Jean-François Bouchard (NOW, April 30-May 6). I identify as transgender, and on my way to Transpose I could feel coming to the surface layers of internal complexity regarding belonging and empowerment. A lens [for looking at these] photographs was getting ready. So what did I see?

I saw larger-than-life, embalmed, greenish half-bodies, some of them attempting to jump out of their flattened, green-shifted square bottles. I saw souls that had been subtly pushed into a posture. I saw postures that avoided something or someone.

Then I went closer. Most of the models' eyes were stuck in an image, in a pose, not present, not in relationship. Absent. Suppressed? Yes, suppressed, even if in an heroic pose.

The models were in a vulnerability that was imposed by the process of posing, and there seemed to be a fracture between this vulnerability and their own core beings.

I could not see the people behind the photographs. I could almost hear them, but then the photographs were still in the way. I found myself longing for the people in the exposed bodies. And I wondered whether they had been paid for the work they did or if they volunteered, led to believe that the exhibit would empower them or the transgender community.

I felt misunderstood, alienated, pulled back in time, compelled to write and get in contact with at least one of the models. Jean-François Bouchard, does this serve your purpose with this art work? Am I doing what you did not do but is still needed? Why did you choose to show your image of the transgendered?